St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-30
TARIFF REFORM LEAGUE.
Banquet Of the Massachusetts League
Last Evening.
MR.. CLEVELAND IS CHEERED
Prominent Politicians Meet and Ex-
change Views on the Questions
Of the Day.

BOSTON, Dec. 29.-The meeting and
banquet of the Massachusetts Tariff Re-
form league at the Brunswick tonight
were highly successful, the arrange
ments being carried out upon most
elaborate scale. There was present
large number of prominent politicians
and government officials, both from
Massachusetts and elsewhere, among the
number being Hon. James Russell
Lowell, Gen. John M. COrse, Hon.
Patrick A. Collins, Congress
man w. c. P. Breckenridge, of
Kentucky; W. L. Wilson, of
West Virginia, and Senator John
L. Morgan, of Alabama. Shortly before
5 O'Clock the guests and members began
to arrive, and at 5 As a business meeting
of the league was held. Resolutions
indOrSing the message of President
Cleveland were unanimously adopted.
Officers were then elected, after which
the party proceeded to the banquet hall.
1t was o'clock when the gentlemen,
to the number of 312, were seated in
the banquet hall, and Rev. James Free
man Clark, D. D., invocated Divine
blessing. After the banquetH on. James
Russell Lowell raped the meeting to
order. In the course of his address Mr..
Lowell was interrupted frequently by
storms of applause. At his first refer
ence to President Cleveland, DR.. Will
lam Everett, Jr., proposed
THREE CHEERS FOR CLEVELAND,
which are given with will. He said:
"One of the reasons that chiefly Sug
geSted the Opportuneness of our coming
together here has been the presidents
message at the opening of the present
congress. Personally, confess that l
feel myself strongly attracted to Mr..
Cleveland as the best representative of
higher type of Americanism that we
have seen since Lincoln was snatched
here to thank him as the head of a
party. We are here to felicitate each
other that the presidential chair has a
man in it, and this means that every
word he says is weighted with what he
is. We are here to felicitate each other
that this man understands politics to
mean business, not chicanery, plain
speaking. not paltering with us in a
double sense, that he has had the cour-
age to tell the truth to the country with
out regard to personal or party
consequences, and thus to remind
us that country not worth
telling the truth to is not
worth living in; nay, deserves to have
lies told 1t and to take the inevitable
consequence in calamitr. Our politics
call loudly for broom. Mr.. Cleveland,
think, has found the broom and begun
to ply it. But, gentlemen, the presi-
dent set us the example not only of
courage, but of
GOOD SENSE AND MODERATION.
He has kept strictly to his text and
his purpose. He has shown us that
there was such thing as being pro-
tected too much, and that we have pro-
tected our shipping interests so effect
ually that they had ceased to need
protection by ceasing to exist. In thus
limiting the field of his warning and his
cOunselS he has done wisely, and we
shall do wisely in following his example.
His facts and his figures will work all
the more effectually. But we must be
patient with them and expect them to
work slowly. Enormous interests are
involved and must be treated tenderly.
Upon concluding his speech, Mr..
Lowell introduced Hon. John Il. Nor
believe we are now about to relieve our
country of some of the fatuous enter
prises which have injured her and
crippled our wealth. To me it is a
pleasant thing that the men of the South
and North are comforting upon queS-
ton which is of interest to all of us.
We find now and will find forever that
there is no Sedate reason why the
two sections should be embroiled. Sec
tional lines of distinction no longer
exist and we are at last one people. |
object to that system which wrings
money from the people to bestow it
upon political aspirants, be they friends
or otherwise. The system of taxation
for tariff has OutgrOwn itself. The ques-
ton is, shall we cut down the revenue
to our wants, or shall we keep this
revenue year after year, or shall we dry
up the sources of this revenue and stop
this wrong to the cOuntry?" Congress-
man Breckenridge, of Kentucky, after
speaking of the grave Importance of the
tariff question and the pressing need of
congressional action, said;
''PROTECTION IS NEVER HEALTHY,
nor in the long run profitable, any more
than feverish strength and restlessness
produced by StimulantS is evidence of
health. The present rates of taxation
are unequal, Onerous and hurtful to the
mass of those employed in the indus
tries professedly sought to be protected;
and so far as taxation is necessary
for the necessities of the gov
eminent, economically admins
tered. it is unjustly imposed
and illegally gathered from the people.
The reduction of taxation and the revis-
ion of the tariff, to which both the great
political parties are pledged, must be
made gradually and cautiously, with
constant remembrance that long estab-
lished system cannot be readily changed,
and that grave practical difficulties lie
lie in the path of any reform. In
the nature of the case all protective
tariffs must have an element of insta-
bility and uncertainty. There are a
few to whom this system is indeed a
bonanza, to all others an injury and a
wrong" Congressman Wilson, of West
Virginia, Congressman Rogers, of Ar
kansas, and others, followed in brief
addresses. 1t was past midnight when
the gathering broke up.